NetOptics

Net Optics Director Pro is an advanced Network Packet Broker (NPB) and network controller switch that aggregates, filters and load balances network traffic sent to network monitoring, security and management tools. Director Pro allows you to filter and load-balance traffic from your 10-Gbps link to multiple 1-Gbps monitoring tool or aggregate multiple 1-Gbps links to 10-Gbps monitoring tools, while traffic is being inspected with a deep packet inspection (DPI) engine, providing filtering at all packet layers.

With its deep packet inspection (DPI) engine, Director Pro extends filtering capabilities beyond the conventional L2-L4 header information, and deeper into L5-L7 headers and the entire packet payload. Director’s TapFlow filtering engine ensures that only traffic of interest is sent to the monitoring appliance, preventing tool oversubscription. Additional features include static and dynamic load balancing for packet-based and flow-based distribution, filter tagging, intuitive Web UI and daisy chain management.

Using the purpose-built combination of Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) with static or dynamic load balancing and policy enforcement, Director Pro relieves oversubscription, leverages tool investment across groups, and centralizes monitoring in the NOC.

Aggregation, regeneration and switching

Director Pro aggregates, regenerates, switches, and filters traffic to various management security and monitoring tools. It performs one-to-one, many-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many mappings of network links and Span ports to monitor ports. Using Director Pro, you can aggregate traffic from any selection of network links and Span ports into a single stream and copy it to any one monitoring port. Or, the same aggregated traffic stream can be copied simultaneously to many monitoring ports, letting different groups monitor the same data without conflicts.

Deep Packet Inspection (DPI)

Director Pro Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) engine provides the ability to apply filters to a packet or multiple packets at any location, regardless of packet length (how "deep" the packet is) or the location of the data to be matched within the packet. Director Pro can filter for addresses, protocols and other information in the packet header, as well as filter by specific words, phrases, numeric and other packet content. This allows you to search for nested MPLS labels, application headers or text-based content for enhanced security and troubleshooting.

Static and Dynamic Load Balancing

Load balancing splits the traffic into multiple streams so two or more monitoring appliances, working in parallel, can access the data. Director Pro provides three methods of load balancing: static, round robin and dynamic. Static load balancing distributes traffic to multiple monitoring outputs based on selected packet criteria such as IP address or VLAN.

Round robin balancing delivers streams of data to each monitoring port by a given weight without regard to flow.  Dynamic load balancing distributes IP traffic flows evenly to multiple tools when the packet characteristics are unknown or changing.  This helps prevent bottlenecks, oversubscription, and under-utilization

TapFlow™  Filtering

Director Pro’s TapFlow filtering engine combines traditional layer 2 through 4 filtering with deep packet inspection (DPI), matching specified ASCII and HEX strings within packet payloads. TapFlow enables you to forward selected traffic to dedicated monitoring traffic, so that each appliance receives only traffic of interest.

Filter Tagging

Filter tagging identifies input streams in aggregated traffic. Filter tagging is ideal for identifying individual input streams within aggregated traffic. You can easily identify packets that came from specific ports or filters that directed those packets. Filter tagging adds a user-defined VLAN tag to the packet, enabling tools to identify the input ports.

Modularity

The interchangeable Director Network Modules (DNMs) provide either 6 inline links or 12 Span ports, supporting Gigabit Fiber or 10/100/1000 Copper media for different network configurations. All Director Pro monitor ports use SFP or XFP modular transceivers so virtually any monitoring tool can be accommodated. In addition, DNMs are available for copper and SX, LX and ZX fiber in both in-line and Span versions, increasing the flexibility of media type support.

Port Density

Director Pro models are available with up to 37 network ports: 24 ports are available with 2 field-upgradable Director Network Modules (DNMs) supporting Gigabit SX (50/62.5µm) LX (8.5µm) or ZX (8.5µm) Fiber or 10/100/1000 Copper media, 10 1Gbps fixed SFP and up to 3 10G XFP ports. Altogether, you can monitor up to 26 SPAN ports or 12 inline links and up to 12 monitoring tools.

Ease of Use

Director Pro provides CLI, Web UI and SNMP support for easy management and configuration. Director supports multiple authentication and authorization (AAA) servers and provides Syslog support for sending log messages to remote servers.

Resiliency

Director Pro’s two modular power supplies provide fault tolerance. If one power supply loses power, Director Pro continues operating on the remaining supply. If a power-supply module needs replacement, there is no need to take Director offline because the power supplies are hot-swappable. Both universal AC and -48VDC (telco) models are available.